Previously, in vehicles which have been driven by individual electric motors, either the electric motor has been connected directly to the wheel and is carried by the suspension as, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,322,141 or, as shown in FIG. 2 of U.S. Pat. No. 5,679,087, the electric motors have been mounted rigidly on the vehicle chassis and connected to the driven wheels by drive shafts having a universal joint at each end.
The former construction increases the unsprung mass of the vehicle.
The object of the invention is to provide a vehicle transmission wherein one or more wheels is driven by its individual motor which may, for example, be electric but in which the motor is mounted on the chassis or support thus keeping the unsprung mass to a minimum but in which there is a simplified drive from the motor to the wheel and a simplified suspension linkage.